


Rearrangements

by JackieSBlake7



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 10:53:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7529905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieSBlake7/pseuds/JackieSBlake7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Servalan acquires Orac, who decides to reorganise things</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rearrangements

'Eliminating Travis was a mistake,' Orac said.  
'It was necessary,' Servalan replied. He had seen her fear in the tunnels of Ensor's base – and was the only other person to know Orac existed, and so Servalan had killed him on their return to the spaceship.  
'You have no alternative plans for dealing with Blake and the Liberator.'  
Which, unfortunately, was true. So far Servalan had been able to bluff things out, but she now needed Orac to come up with a solution to her problems.  
'That is what I wish you to resolve.'  
'Be more precise.'  
'I want to save the Federation from its enemies.'  
'Which ones?'  
'All of them.'  
'That is manifestly impossible, given the Federation’s present economic policies and also self-contradictory. There is a 53.89576457% chance of a significant incursion from outside the Federation occurring within the next five years, a 75.81204873% probability that rebels and others will cause major disruption to tie up the military so that they cannot handle anything else, a 62.876592% probability that leaders of independent and would-be independent planets and others will make use of the situation that arises and a 92.89123906% probability that the Federation will go into decline unless drastic reforms are undertaken. Should your attempted coup be successful, you will face a very low probability of assassination by subordinates – mainly because you have eliminated all your subordinates with any ambition, and your civilian equivalents are doing likewise for other such.'  
'So if I eliminate my civilian opponents, and the major rebels I will be safe.'  
'No. There are other problems – not least because anyone with any talent is being eliminated, becoming a rebel or going into exile. You and your ambition can be seen as a threat to the Federation – you eliminate your most senior personnel…'  
'For failing to handle the problems set.'  
'Being what? The problems you complain about are symptoms of the weaknesses of the Federation. Eliminate the weaknesses, adapt to accommodate the criticisms of those within and without the Federation and the Federation will become stronger. And justify your continuing in your present role.'  
Servalan could no longer control her annoyance with the computer. 'So you do not live up to Ensor's claims.'  
'Ensor underestimated my capacities.' The reference to its creator, who had died because of Servalan's intervention, annoyed Orac, as did the stupidity of having so much of Space Command's computers based on Tarriel cell technology, so thus accessible to anyone with sufficient intent to cause havoc - including Orac if it did not keep away from Mulder and his plans. Quite apart from its creator’s instructions Orac felt duty bound to rearrange the system, so that nobody else could do the same with bad intent.  
'Give me a plan!'  
'If you wish for a subservient computer go to Dorian on Xenon.' Orac had deduced the nature of the computer Dorian was likely to create from what Ensor had said about him.

The cave in Dorian's base was unable to handle both him and Servalan at the same time, and so trapped them both in an endless transference loop, allowing Dorian's previous victim to leave the base with Soolin and the Scorpio. Dorian and Servalan were then released as there was now an unstable situation.  
Servalan then had an interesting time getting involved in Seska-Hommik politics (both sides eventually agreed to work together in order to get rid of her).  
Orac deduced that Star One's excessive workload would lead to problems, conflicting demands and other things that were offensive to all right minded computers. Activities were thus devolved to regional computers, being the system that had existed prior to the creation of Central Control. Rebels and others were contacted, and encouraged to come up with sensible plans to deal with perceived problems, possibly on the purely local scale. Many of them found this an interesting challenge, and Orac gathered much data thereby.  
The controls for the extragalactic minefields' decommissioning units were exchanged between them, directions to be transmitted by relay. The Andromedans were thus unable to decommission the minefield close to Star One, and did not have the resources to bypass it, and thus were thwarted. Eventually Orac made use of the Federation's subdivisions to enable the rebels and others to put their theories into practice, so that the best features of each could be exchanged. It then arranged a deal with Zen of the Liberator, and made the crew an offer they could not refuse.

Orac was thus able to combine studying the universe with trying to understand why the inhabitants of the Federation – and indeed its equivalents elsewhere – always seemed to find fault with whatever system was installed, whatever the advantages over the previous regimes.


End file.
